freshwaterphi (CA)

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Co ntact us 2007 Fishing Reports
The following fishing reports have been compiled from most of my outings, I hope to add many more this year. Scroll down the page to view all reports. June 24 - June 29 2007 Well, we finally made it out to Giles lake for a 5 day trip with the entire crew. We were waiting for a long time for this one, the trip ended up being a great success. Most days were in the 30 degrees range, pretty much a heat wave for that area, the water remained around 75 Farenheit which triggered the bigger largemouth bass in the lake to feed aggressively. As I was on Daddy duty for the entire trip, I didn't get to fish from our boat nearly as much as I would have like to, but I quickly discovered that the shore fishing was just as good if not better right in front of our cabin, where the lake has thick branch and log cover. The bass started hitting from the first cast, which landed a nice largemouth bass, just under 4 lbs. The fish went straight into the sunken trees as soon as I gave it some drag, I had to go in the lake to get it out of the branches by hand. That's when I realized that I needed to "horse" ; larger fish caught on the shore, as they all tried to head for the same submerged branches when hooked. Over 4 days, 6 adults and 4 kids managed to catch hundreds of bass with 5 over 4 lbs, another 6-8 over 3 lbs, and about 25 over 2 lbs, in addition to hundreds of sunfish and a few perch and a couple smaller Northern Pikes. I got some great fillet practice, as I must have filleted over 50 bass, I got to try my new serrated saltwater fillet knife, it cuts through thick bass ribs like butter. The younger kids really enjoyed the wildlife on our shoreline, including non venomous snakes, lots of turtles, and other interesting birds and insects, and got some great hook setting practice. Before we knew it, the week had passed, time to head back to reality. Luckily, we have another trip planned to Giles lake in the end of July, we look forward to some more rod bending, drag peeling action. Pictures from the trip should be in the picture gallery shortly. June 20 2007 As mentioned in the last report, I planned to do some carping this week, unfortunately I could only go for a few hours due to last minutes scheduling changes. The wind was gusting over 20 KM per hour too, which was not what the weather network had predicted, but they are wrong more often than not. I took Largemouth Ari along for the day, we hit the river about 10"30 AM. The carping started off slowly as expected, I did quite a bit of "spodding&q uot; with corn to chum the water for a carp frenzy. They started hitting about an hour later, and the kept hitting with increasing frequency up until about 2:30 PM when I had to leave. We ended up landing seven carp, Ari landed the largest of the day at 20 lbs. We lost a few that spit the hook quickly, so much for my idea of trying larger #1 worm hooks, I'm reverting my carp rigs back to #2 bait holder hooks, the fish don't throw them as often. The entire "crew" is heading for Giles lake next week, we hope to have some great new reports, pics and videos when we return. June 18 2007 Kids were off school today, I took them for a half day trip to the Outaouais / Ottawa river. The weather was hazy, around 26 degrees, the water extremely shallow. The weeds are starting to foul up live bait, and the bass have moved away from shore now that the season is open and they have stopped spawning. As the fish weren't biting much, we left after about 2 hours, and headed for the St Lawrence river at the spot it intersects with the Outaouais / Ottawa river, which is a short drive from where we were. The panfish were biting well all afternoon, the kids must have hooked about 30 perch, rock bass and sunfish. I manage to catch a small Northern Pike, 26 inches, weighing just under 4 lbs. Didn't bother trying for carp, as I hope to go carping in the next couple days at a better location. June 13 2007 Jimmy and I headed back to the St Lawrence river for some carping. Another great day on the river, weather was sunny, around 28-30 degrees, 10 KM / hour wind. Jimmey started for carp right away, I started off trying for Northen pike, nothing much biting on the minnows. The carp we great though, especially after I did some chumming with my home made spod. We hooked fifteen carp, landed nine. I beat my personal carp record, landing a 26 Lb female, Jimmy caught his first channel cat, which weighed in at 9.5 lbs, on corn intended for carp. He also caught his first walleye, measuring 12 inches, amazingly, it swallowed a hook baited with corn too. So much for trying to target species, looks like everything is eating corn these daysâ€&brvba r; Pictures from the trip should be in the picture gallery shortly. June 10-11 2007 I took "Largemouth " Ari and "Pikeman&qu ot; Avi up North for a couple days, as a reward they earned for school related efforts. They were waiting for this trip for months, as I told them there was a good chance of catching walleyes, based on my past experience on the Du Lievre River in the Laurentians. We arrived at about 1:00 PM and started shore fishing under a bridge that typically has large numbers of small bait fish, it seems we might have been a little early in the season, as we were catching many bass in the 1 LB range, as well as lots of "Jumbo" ; fallfish in the same weight range. We fished for about 5 hours, no walleye in sightâ€&brvb ar; Next morning, we returned to our spot, more big fallfish and a small Northern Pike, still no walleye. The kids finally got bored there, we moved to another lake about 100 Kilometers closer to home that I fished as a kid. We got to on of the spots I knew where we fished of a small bridge over water 6-8 feet deep. The kids had a blast, as each cast landed another fish, mostly smallmouth bass up to 8-12 inches long. You could actually see them swarming around the worms the kids were dropping right in front of us, which made the fishing all the more exciting. We also caught various pan fish (perch, rock bass and sunfish), and I even caught a small 9 inch brook trout on a worm and jig. Pictures from the trip should be in the picture gallery shortly. June 4 2007 Light rain and 20 degrees, we decided to go carp fishing in the St Lawrence River in Ontario. The decision was a great one, as the fishing was great. We hooked our first one within less than 5 minutes, a small male. As the day progressed, the fish were biting in shifts, where an hour or so would go by without anything happening, then suddenly they would start hitting non stop. We ended up catching a dozen carp between 6 - 25 Lbs, most in the 10 - 15 Lb range, including a couple double headers. The rain seems to make them feed a lot more actively, looks like we'll be planning most carping for rainy days. Pictures from the trip should be in the picture gallery shortly. May 2007 summary: I beat my record for number of days fished in May, thanks in part to the trip to Florida. The fishing was pretty much what I expected, except that the spawning bass seem a bit smaller than usual so far. I hope June will have the "big ones" finally arriving (unless they already left?). The perch, bass, pike and carp mostly arrived on time as expected, although my Ontario spot in the St Lawrence has been highly infested with invading gobies since last year. We haven't managed to hook into any perch or sunfish because of them, they are extremely aggressive when it comes to stealing the other panfish's food and territory. I hope the MNR finds a way to get rid of them, although that is highly unlikely, as any poisons will kill the fishery for years to come. Maybe they should put a bounty on them, all though I imagine that wouldn't be too cost effective. Anyway, I look forward to more great fishing and beating more personal records in June 2007. May 31 2007 As mentioned in the May 30 report, we decided to go out again for another half day trip. Due to the high wind and rain advisory, we decided to fish for carp in the St Lawrence river in Ontario instead. Although the forecast called for a good chance of light rain, the sun started coming out as soon as we arrived. My previous day's assessment of the dam being closed was correct, as this spot is on the other side of the dam and the water was extremely high. As the day progressed, the weather really warmed up, we must have reached over 30 degrees with the humidex. The carp fishing started to heat up as expected, we must have seen over 100 carp jump, sometimes 2 and even 3 at a time. Jimmy landed the first carp of the day, a nice female in the 14 Lb range. What happened next was one for the books. I hook into what seemed to be a huge carp from the way it was fighting and running. Once I brought it in I was quite surprised to see that it was under 12 lbs. We didn't have the net with us, so I volunteered to grab it by the gills near shore. As I was about to grab it, the hook popped out, the carp just remained sitting there as it was quite exhausted. I had to get my feet in the water to grab it quickly even though I was wearing boots. As I grabbed it, it took off for a few feet then paused. I dived for it fully clothed, managing to grab it by the gills and tail at once, with only my head above water. Jimmy almost died of laughter, but at least I had my fish. I really wish I had the camcorder for this one, probably could have won on the "Funniest home videos" show. Jimmy ended up landing 2 more 20 Lb males, which I "gilled&quo t; now that I was in my boxers in the heat, the water was a lot warmer than I expected. I also caught my first rock bass of the season, and welcome change from those invading round gobies. May 30 2007 Light rain didn't deter us from more pre season smallmouth bass fishing in the Outaouais / Ottawa river. We got to our usual spot only to find the water at the lowest level I have ever seen it at this time of the year. Looks like they closed the dam on the St Lawrence which directly affects our sport on the Outaouais, as it's a couple kilometers away from the St Lawrence. We picked up some large minnows, first cast landed a 2 Lb smallie. Then it died down a bit after that until a couple hours later when the smaller ones started hitting our bait. Most were too small to get a proper hook set as we were using 1/0 and 2/0 hooks with 4 inch + minnows. We managed to bring in another couple in the 1.5 - 2 Lb range, but we had to leave early as we only had time for a half day trip. Of course that meant we would have to do another half day trip the following day… ; May 18 2007 More high winds in Quebec sent us back to Ontario for a half day trip. I left the kids home for this one. We hit our usual carp spot on the St Lawrence river, the water was extremely stained, as we still had cloud cover and the occasional drizzle. No carp hookups in 2 ½ hours, we caught some small bullheads eating our corn instead. As this got rather annoying after a while, we switched spots to the Long Sault park. The water was a bit clearer there, but no fish anywhere. I eventually hooked one small carp that threw the hook shortly after being hooked in the later afternoon, unfortunately is was already time to head back home. May 15 2007 Despite high wind warning, we headed back to the Outaouais / Ottawa river for some more live release smallmouth bass fishing, as the shore fishing doesn't stay this good for more then 4-5 weeks, usually just until the season actually opens around June 16th. We got there around 9:30 AM, along with "Largemouth " Ari and Levi "Conservatio nist". Jimmy's first cast landed a nice 2 LB smallmouth bass, again using the pike rig under bobber with a live minnow. The fishing then died down for a few hours, with the kids catching 4 perch on worms. As the wind picked up, we switched to artificial lures, which paid off as Jimmy caught another 2 pounder on a crankbait. The wind really started gusting around noon, we decided to head to the St Lawrence river in Ontario, where the wind prediction was a lot lower. We arrived to my usual carp fishing spot about an hour later, only to find close to a dozen carp fishermen already there, visiting from England. These guys have all the "fancy" ; and latest carp fishing equipment, they caught a few while we were there. We didn't get any hookups, so we left for another spot after a few hours. We ended up in the Long Sault park, we had total wind shelter on one side of the road, and crystal clear water. Unfortunately nothing was biting for the first hour or so, as we fished for perch, carp, pike and bass. Then out of nowhere, I got a nice hit on a Thunderstick top water lure. I set my hook, and the fish took off, Ari grabbed the camcorder, Jimmy woke up from his snooze, I had a nice Northern Pike on the line. I brought him in a couple minutes later, it measured 32 inches, weighted in at 7.5 Lbs. As I climbed the bank, to unhook it, Jimmy started casting the Thunderstick, and noticed it being followed by more pike. I quickly switched my carp rod for a leader and blue / silver hammered spoon. First cast hooked up to another Northern pike, measuring 33 inches and weighing in just over 9 lbs. Suddenly they were everywhere, we tried a few more casts, had some follows, but they were gone again as fast as they showed up, all in a matter of 5-10 minutes. We got some live video footage of the catches, you can check the Youtube.com Keyword "freshwaterp hil" to view them.